How To Sink A Trampoline

If your children would love a floor level trampoline and you want to let them bounce without fear of them falling off, you need to know how to sink a trampoline!

This job was a planned part of our garden makeover last year and having the trampoline at ground level has revived interest in it from the kids who are never off it these days! They’ll even run out of the back door, have a bounce and run back in and I don’t worry about anyone falling off it. Plus I was able to get rid of the ugly netting that used to surround the trampoline when it was at ‘climb up’ level.

It is a big job and it took us about six weeks to complete as we were doing it on evenings and weekends around work but if you were on it full time then it’d probably take about 3 days. It’s worth the effort as the results are beautiful. Here’s how to get started:

Method:

Measure your existing trampoline then dig a hole leaving an extra 6 inches all the way around. For the depth, dig the length of the normal trampoline legs if you are sticking with your existing floor finish. As we wanted to lay stone around ours, we allowed the trampoline to sit higher than original floor level during the build as it would become floor level once the new stone flags were laid.

To dig the hole you will need to hire a mini digger and a skip to take away the waste rubble unless you are planning to use it elsewhere in the garden.

Digging out the trampoline hole

Once the hole is dug, sit your trampoline in it and concrete in the legs. You will need to pour in as much concrete as it takes to cover the metal legs at the bottom. Then leave this to set for a few days.

The trampoline is cemented in

Infill the side walls of the trampoline hole with hardcore. Put concrete around the top edge of the trampoline at floor level to secure the edge of the hole in place.

Do whatever floor finishes you are having. We laid Indian stone flags around the trampoline and on the rest of the patio. Once laid, do the pointing to complete the job!

So now you know how to do it, would you consider giving a sunken trampoline a go? Let me know in the comments.

Can no-one remember the That’s Life campaign in the 80s to dig up concreted and Tarmacked playgrounds and replace them with safer surfaces? This sunken trampoline idea is brilliant BUT please please do not advise people to do it without ensuring that the surrounding area is laid with a safer surface than stone!! I’m wincing at just how easy it would be for someone to bounce off and land head first onto it. There are many relatively inexpensive surfacing options that will cushion the impact of a child’s accidental fall and significantly reduce the severity of an injury. I’m sure it will be simple enough, in this case, to find such a surface to put over the stone you have already laid.

Hi Adam, I think it’s up to the individuals to decide on what they will do at their own homes and this post is to show ‘how to’ not to advise parents on child safety. We chose to lay stone – we have older children, not toddlers so it is a great solution for us. Obviously you would do different. Thanks for highlighting the other options, but I’ll be keeping our stone exposed – I don’t want the garden to look like a council playground.

I love, love, love this! I find trampolines quite unsightly in gardens, and the only time I’ve thought I could see ourselves with a trampoline (if we had a garden rather than a small yard!) was when I saw one just like yours (but on grass). 6 weeks… you are a determined bunch!